Methods of and apparatus for winding strip material



Oct. 11, 1966 F. J. JANNETT 3,278,130

METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR WINDING STRIP MATERIAL Filed Feb. 19, 1964 l8 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN VENTUE' FTLJJJHNNETT (19 a @M Oct. 11, 1966 F. J. JANNETT 3,278,130

G STRIP MATERIAL METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR WINDIN l8 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 19, 1964 18 Sheets-Sheet 5 F. J. JANNETT METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR WINDING STRIP MATERIAL Filed Feb. 19, 19 4 Oct. 11, 1966 Oc 11, 1966 F. J. JANNETT 3,278,130

METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR WINDING STRIP MATERIAL Filed Feb. 19, 1964 18 Sheets-Sheet 4 Oct. 11, 1966 F. J. JANNETT 3, 3

METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR WINDING STRIP MATERIAL 18 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Feb. 19, 1964 Oct. 11, 1966 F. J. JANNETT METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR WINDING STRIP MATERIAL l8 Sheets-Sheet 6 Filed Feb. 19, 1964 Oct. 11, 1966 F. J. JANNETT METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR WINDING STRIP MATERIAL 18 Sheets-Sheet 7 Filed Feb. 19, 19 64 Oct. 11, 1966 JANNETT 3,278,130

METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR WINDING STRIP MATERIAL Filed Feb. 19, 19 64 18 Sheets-Sheet 8 Oct. 11, 1966 F. J. JANNETT 3,278,130

METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR WINDING STRIP MATERIAL Filed Feb. 19, 1964 1e Sheets-Sheet 9 Oct. 11, 1966 F. J. JANNETT METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR WINDING STRIP MATERIAL l8 Sheets-Sheet 10 Filed Feb. 19, 1964 wwN N 1 QM mw Qww v RN L .J Vm W \N ww 5w Mm Rm 3w 3 Oct. 11, 1966 F. J. JANNETT 3,278,130

METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR WINDING STRIP MATERIAL Filed Feb. 19, 1964 18 Sheets-Sheet 11 Oct. 11, 1966 F. J.'JANNETT 3,278,130

METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR WINDING STRIP MATERIAL Filed Feb. 19, 1964 18 Sheets-Sheet 12 s II HHIHWI UH 1H ll Oct. 11, 1966 F. J. JANNETT METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR WINDING STRIP MATERIAL Filed Feb. 19, 1964 1.8 Sheets-Sheet l5 Oct. 11, 1966 F. J. JANNETT 3,

METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR WINDING STRIP MATERIAL 1.8 Sheets-Sheet 14 Filed Feb. 19, 196 4 Oct. 11, 1966 F. J. JANNETT METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR WINDING STRIP MATERIAL 18 Sheets-Sheet 15 Filed Feb. 19, 1964 mm Hm M m j kbm MANN Q2940 UNI/V $6M Q2? WAN Ha Oct. 11, 1966 F. J. JANNETT METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR WINDING STRIP MATERIAL 18 SheetS Sheet 16 Filed Feb. 19, 1964 5 j MW 6 M 9 J? m P 7 O m 2 m f 5 5 4 5 Oct. 11, 1966 F. J. JANNETT METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR WINDING STRIP MATERIAL l8 Sheets-Sheet l 7 Filed Feb. 19, 1964 Oct. 11, 1966 F. J. JANNETT METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR WINDING STRIP MATERIAL l8 Sheets-Sheet 18 Filed Feb. 19, 1964 F1|II|I|I IIIIII Tl||||l|||| l I l I LL 516 MOTOR FIELD OVERWRAP United States Patent 3,278,130 METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR WINDING STRIP MATERIAL Frederick J. Jannett, West Millington, N.J., assignor to Western Electric Company, Incorporated, New York,

N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed Feb. 19, 1964, Ser. No. 345,927 20 Claims. (Cl. 242-56.1)

The invention relates to methods of and apparatus for winding strip material. The invention relates more particularly, although not exclusively, to methods of and apparatus for winding electrical capacitors in a fully automatic operation.

The manufacture of capacitors is an old and crowded art; however, the ever increasing use of capacitors in various electrical fields, particularly the communications industry, is placing increased demands on manufacturers of electrical apparatus not only for additional quantities of capacitors, but, more important, a demand for smaller capacitors having better electrical and physical characteristics. Manufacturers of communications equipment have attempted to produce, at reduced costs, vast quantities of new, improved and more reliable miniature capacitors for use in modern telephone systems. Spirally wound capacitors have been found to be depend-able for the intended use in telephone systems and are relatively inexpensive to manufacture; however, there is an ever increasing problem of providing methods and apparatus capable of high-level production of vast quantities of stable, miniature-type capacitors made from thinner and narrower tapes, having uniform properties, as required by the communications industry.

When the capacitors are used in complex communications systems having millions of different circuits which may be interconnected in millions of different ways, the uniformity of the properties of the individual capacitors and dependability of the capacitors have a significant effect on the quality of the signals or messages transmitted by such a system. 'It is, therefore, obvious that nonuniformity of the individual types of capacitors is undesirable in communications systems because nonuniformity introduces unreliability and instability in transmission characteristics of the circuits.

In order to provide more reliable capacitors having the desired characteristics, it was considered necessary to conceive and develop more economical and dependable equipment and processes capable of performing high-speed, lowcost methods of winding miniature-size capacitors to value from relatively thin and narrow tapes. This resulted in the conception and development of methods of and apparatus for winding circular, tubular capacitors automatically, embodying certain principles of the present invention, which permit all of the various operations necessary to wind a circular, tubular capacitor, to take place uninterruptedly in a series of automatic operations.

An object of the present invention is to provide new and improved methods of and apparatus for winding strip material.

Another object of the present invention is to provide new and improved automatic winding apparatus capable of winding strip material spirally into cylindrical packages at a relatively rapid rate and recycling from one Wind- "ice ing operation to the other without the need of intervention by human hands.

A further object of the present invention is to provide new and improved winding apparatus capable of winding capacitors to a given value of capacitance within relatively close tolerances.

Another object of the present invention is to provide new and improved means for guiding strip material accurately to permit proper registration of the edges of the strip material being wound into a cylindrical package.

A further object of the present invention is to provide new and improved brakes capable of being used for maintaining substantially uniform tension in strips of material being fed to a capacitor-winding mandrel.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide new and improved methods of and apparatus for cutting strip material being wound into a cylindrical pack-' age, transferring and securing the leading ends of the strip material to a subsequent winding mandrel at a relatively rapid rate while preventing the strip material from wrinkling.

Another object of the present invention is to provide new and improved methods of and apparatus for clamping strip material, to be wound into a cylindrical package, between a two-piece mandrel prior to severing all of the strips of material extending from a previous package to form trailing ends on the previous package and leading ends of a package to be formed.

A further object of the present invention is to provide new and improved methods of and apparatus for rapid production of compact, precision capacitors which involve supplying relatively thin and narrow strips of conductive and nonconductive tapes to a winding head, cutting the conductive tapes prior to cutting the nonconductive tapes, sealing the capacitors to prevent unraveling of the tapes while completing the operation, removing the mandrel from the capacitor and ejecting the wound capacitors from the winding head, all automatically.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood from the following detailed description of methods and apparatus forming specific embodiments of the present invention, when read in conjunction with the attached drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a capacitor winding apparatus embodying certain features of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic, perspective view illustrating various cycles of the operation of the capacitor winding apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of a partially wound capacitor of the type wound by the apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1;

BIG. 4 is an enlarged, side, elevational view of the supply units and winding station of the apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1 with portions broken away for purposes of clarity;

FIG. 5 is a partial, front, elevational view of the apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1 with portions broken away for purposes of clarity;

FIGS. 6, 7, 8 and 9 are enlarged, vertical, sectional views of the winding turret of the apparatus of FIG. 5 taken along lines 6-6, 7-7, 88 and 9-9, respectively, thereof;

FIG. 10 is an enlarged, vertical view of a portion of the apparatus of FIG. 5 taken along line -10 thereof;

FIG. 11 is an enlarged, vertical view of a portion of the apparatus of FIG. 5 taken along line 11-11 thereof;

FIG. 12 is an enlarged fragmentary, isometric view of various elements of the apparatus of FIG. 1 for moving the winding spindles on the left side of the turret, as viewed in FIG. 5, into operating position;

FIG. 13 is an enlarged, partial, vertical view of a portion of the apparatus of FIG. 1 taken along line 13-13 thereof for moving the winding spindles on the left side of the turret into operating position;

FIGS. 14 to 18, inclusive, are enlarged, vertical views illustrating various operational positions of different portions of a winding mandrel of the apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1 during the operation thereof;

FIGS. 19 to 21, inclusive, are enlarged, sectional views of the winding mandrel illustrated in FIGS. 14, 15 and 16 taken along lines 19-19, 20-20 and 21-21, all respectively, thereof;

FIG. 22 is an enlarged, sectional view of a tape guide illustrated on FIG. 4 taken along line 22-22 thereof;

FIG. 23 is a sectional view of the tape guide of FIG. 22 taken along line 23-23 thereof;

FIG. 24 is an enlarged, sectional view of one of the tape-supply units illustrated on FIG. 4 taken along line 24-24 thereof;

FIG. 25 is an enlarged, fragmentary, vertical view of a braking device illustrated on FIG. 4 taken along line 25-25 thereof with portions broken away for purposes of clarity;

FIG. 26 is an enlarged, fragmentary, vertical section of a vacuum head and tape-cutting device of the apparatus of FIG. 4 taken along line 26-26 thereof;

FIGS. 27 and 28 are enlarged, fragmentary, vertical views of the heat-sealing and tape-cutting portion of the apparatus of FIG. 1 taken along lines 27-27 and 28-28, respectively, thereof;

FIG. 29 is a timing chart illustrating the operating sequence of the various elements of the apparatus of FIG. 1; and

FIGS. 30, 31 and 32 combined, constitute a schematic representation of an electrical control circuit forming a part of the apparatus of FIG. 1.

Referring now to the drawings and more particularly to FIG. 1 thereof, there is shown a preferred embodiment of an apparatus, designated generally by the numeral 20, for winding automatically circular, tubular capacitors, designated generally by the numerals 21-21 (FIGS. 2 and 3). The capacitors 21-21 are formed of two thin, metal-foil tapes 22 and 23, such as aluminum or leadtin foil, which are insulated from each other by two interleaved, dielectric tapes 26 and 27 formed of insulated material, such as Mylar, paper or polystyrene. The capacitor-winding apparatus 20 includes a tape-supply unit, designated generally by the numeral 28 (FIGS. 1 and 4), a horizontally disposed, indexable turret, designated generally by the numeral 31, and a castered frame or carriage, designated generally by the numeral 32. The castered frame or carriage 32 also houses a drive mechanism, designated generally by the numeral 33 (FIG. 5), and an electrical control circuit, designated generally by the numeral 400 (FIGS. 30, 31 and 32).

The winding turret 31 is mounted rotatably in the frame 32 on a hollow shaft 36 (FIGS. 4 to 10, inclusive). The turret 31 includes a left-hand barrel 37 and a righthand barrel 38 which are both keyed to the hollow shaft 36 and are supported by flanged cartridge-type bearings 41-41 mounted in plates 42-42. The left and righthand barrels 37 and 38, respectively of the turret 31 each support three pivotably mounted mandrel housings 43-43, which cooperate to form three pairs of rotatable winding spindles, designated generally by the numerals 46-46. Each pair of the winding spindles 46-46 is indexed, 120 at a time, to move successively through a winding station, an overwrapping and heat-sealing station, and a mandrel-removal or capacitor-stripping station, designated generally by the numerals 47, 48 and 49, respectively, (FIG. 2). The indexing movement is effected by an indexing cam 50 (FIG. 10) connected to a cam shaft 51. The cam shaft 51 is supported in ball bearings 52-52 in the side plates 42-42 of the turret frame 32 and is indexed by means of a chain drive, designated generally by the numeral 53 (FIG. 5), connected to a right-angle gear motor 56 which drives a conventional single-revolution clutch 57 (FIG. 10) mounted on the cam shaft 51.

The cam 50, which indexes the turret 31, is connected operatively therewith through a cam follower 61 (FIG. 10), oscillatable arms 62 and 63, interconnected by an adjustable linkage 66, and a set of gears 67 and 68, connected to the oscillatable arm 63 by an unidirectional clutch 71. The arm 62 is mounted oscillatably to one of the side plates 42-42 of thus frame 32 by a stud 70 and is biased upwardly by a tension spring 72 to hold the cam follower 61 against the surface of the cam 50. The cam 50, through the follower arm 62 and linkage 66, moves the arm 63, and the gear 67, connected thereto by the clutch 71, through an arc of 60 which, in turn, moves the gear 68 and attached turret 31 through an arc of "because of the two-to-one ratio of the gears 67 and 68.

In order to insure that the spindles 46-46 on the turret 31 are indexed to and remain in the desired position, the turret 31, which is keyed to the hollow shaft 36, is locked in position and prevented from vibrating excessively during the winding operation by a spring-biased bell crank 73 (FIG. 10), operated by a cam 76. The end 77 of the bell crank 73 is tapered to facilitate insertion of the end 77 of the bell crank 73 into one of three notches 78-78 of a three-position, turret-indexing stop wheel 81 keyed to the hollow shaft 36 by a key 79.

The winding spindles 46-46 (FIGS.. 2, 5 and 14 to 21, inclusive) each include a mandrel half 82 or 83 on one-half of the turret 31 which cooperates with the associated mandrel half 83 or 82 on the other half of the turret 31 to form a complete mandrel, designated generally by the numeral 86. The individual capacitors 21- 21 are wound on the individual mandrels 86-86 and held on the mandrels until the mandrel halves 82 and 83 are separated axially to remove the capacitors 21-21 from the mandrels 86-86 and permit the capacitors to drop into a discharge chute 87 at the capacitor-stripping station 49, as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 18.

It is desirable that the adjacent-cooperating surfaces 88 and 89 of the mandrel halves 82 and 83, respectively, are always maintained in the same parallel orientation and are stopped when the adjacent surfaces 88 and 89 of the associated mandrel halves 82 and 83, respectively, are oriented horizontally, as illustrated in FIGS. 14 to 21, inclusive. This is accomplished by connecting a winding-indexing lock wheel 91 (FIG. 11) rigidly to a drive shaft 92 and interconnecting the drive shaft 92 with planetary drive gears 93-93, for driving the spindles 46-46, by a pinion gear 96 keyed to the right-hand end of the drive shaft 92, as viewed in FIG. 5, a pair of axially split gears 97-97 keyed to a jack shaft 98 and two turret-idler, sun-gear assemblies, designated generally by the numerals 101-101 (FIG. 5). The drive shaft 92 is driven by a shunt-wound, variable-speed, direct-current motor 102 through a timing-belt drive, designated generally by the numeral 103, connected to the left end of the drive shaft 92, as viewed in FIG. 5.

The pinion gear 96 on the right end of the drive shaft 92 is intermeshed with the axially split gear 97, on the left end of the jack shaft 98, with a three-to-one gear ratio. The split gears 97-97, on opposite ends of the jack shaft 98, mesh with the turret-idler gear assemblies 101-101, mounted on bearings 106-106 (FIG. 8) on the hollow shaft 36, and have one-to-one gear ratios. Each of the turret-idler, sun-gear assemblies 101-101 intermesh with the three associated planetary drive gears 

8. APPARATUS FOR WINDING AUTOMATICALLY TUBULAR CAPACITORS FORMED OF TWO OR MORE STRIPS OF THIN METAL FOIL WHICH ARE INSULATED FROM EACH OTHER BY TWO TAPES OF INSULATING MATERIAL, WHICH COMPRISES: MEANS FOR SUPPLYING INDEFINITE LENGTHS OF THIN METALFOIL TAPES; MEANS FOR SUPPLYING INDEFINITE LENGTHS OF DIELECTRIC TAPES; AN INDEXABLE TURRET INCLUDING A PLURALITY OF ROTATABLE WINDING MANDRELS, EACH OF WHICH IS INDEXED SUCCESSIVELY THROUGH A WINDING STATION, A SEALING STATION, AND A CAPACITOR-STRIPPING STATION; THE MANDRELS EACH INCLUDE A PAIR OF MANDREL HALVES WHICH ARE ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE TURRET, EACH OF WHICH COOPERATES WITH THE ASSOCIATED MANDREL HALF ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TURRET TO FORM A COMPLETE MANDREL ON WHICH THE INDIVIDUAL CAPACITORS ARE WOUND AND HELD UNTIL THE MANDREL HALVES ARE SEPARATED AND THE CAPACITORS ARE REMOVED THEREFROM IN THE STRIPPING STATION; MEANS FOR ROTATING THE MANDRELS TO WIND THE TAPES THEREON TO FORM CAPACITORS; MEANS FOR MEASURING THE ELECTRICAL CAPACITANCE OF THE CAPACITOR BEING WOUND DURING THE WINDING CYCLE; MEANS FOR CUTTING ONE OF THE METAL-FOIL TAPES AUTOMATICALLY IN RESPONSE TO THE MEASUREMENT OF THE VALUE OF THE ELECTRICAL CAPACITANCE OF THE CAPACITOR BEING WOUND; MEANS FOR CUTTING THE OTHER METAL-FOIL TAPE AUTOMATICALLY SUBSEQUENT TO THE CUTTING OF THE ONE METAL-FOIL TAPE; 